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November 6, 2005

Comparing The Flickrs of Video

Michael Arrington

202 comments »

I’ve been tracking a number of sites that offer flickr-like services for video.

I’ve taken a look at as many of these services that I could find. The most well known is YouTube, which we profiled in August and which recently raised venture money from Sequoia.

But there are at least eight others worth looking at as well. In addition to YouTube, these are CastPost, ClipShack, DailyMotion, Grouper, OurMedia, Revver, Vimeo and vSocial.

Instead of writing individual profiles on each of these, I’ve created a quick chart that give a basic overview of the features. I’ve included only those companies that provide a web-based (v. client) service that hosts the videos on your behalf. Because of these requirements, great services like VideoEgg (profile) are not included.

Here’s the chart. I’ll update it as needed.

Most of these companies convert video to Flash. This reduces file size significantly and also allows most platforms and browsers to easily view the content. Two, Vimeo and DailyMotion, convert files to quicktime instead. A couple do not convert the files at all. One benefit of those services which do not convert is that the files can be downloaded by others, emailed, etc. QuickTime format can also be downloaded.

One service that has a unique feature is Revver. Much like FruitCast for podcasts, Revver will auto-insert advertisements directly into your videos and share revenue with you.

A couple of additional notes. Grouper has not launched their video publishing product yet. When it does launch there is a good chance it will involve a client download which would remove them from this list. Also, while I’ve noted which services allow tagging of videos, there are a wide variety of tagging options within these services, and many of them also provide comments, rankings, etc. and which are not noted in the chart. Finally, the tools to allow blogging, friends lists and other sharing are varied and more useful in some products than others. Which product is best for you depends on what types of features are most important to you.

UPDATE: I’ve updated the chart above with more information. People have left great comments and have included new companies I’ve missed. If you are associated with those companies, please email me relevant information and I’ll include it in the chart. The most interesting comment is from Vinu, who tells us that he heard a rumor that Flickr will be adding video support soon. That would have a significant impact on this market, of course.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 6th, 2005 at 9:22 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. Mitch Keeler

    November 6th, 2005 at 9:34 pm

    Hey, why no AudioBlog.com? They do video publishing as well.

  2. DrDel

    November 6th, 2005 at 9:50 pm

    I have been watching these sites pretty closely myself..

    .. I have even thought about making one myself… the only thing preventing me is the bandwidth cost

    paying for bandwidth for flickr is one thing.. but paying the bill for bandwidth for a video site is CRAZY!

    how do they websites pay the bills?

  3. Enric

    November 6th, 2005 at 11:25 pm

    Michael, have a look at blip.tv. It’s my favorite hosting for my videoblogs. They have tagging, cross upload to ourmedia, blog site and other features. They also participate in the yahoo videoblogging group, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/videoblogging , and answer any questions or problems they see about their site. The yahoo videoblogging group is also a good source of information and participation on video and vlogging.

    ;),

    Enric

  4. Michael Arrington

    November 6th, 2005 at 11:27 pm

    Enric,

    I did look at blip.tv. I decided not to include it because it is specific to videoblogs, whereas the other services are more targeted to non-linear videos (much like flickr). I know there are a lot of passionate user of blip…I may profile it separately.

  5. Al

    November 6th, 2005 at 11:33 pm

    Hi Michael…how come you didn’t mention Google Video? It converts to Flash. It has worked great for me.

  6. Jonathan Boutelle

    November 6th, 2005 at 11:36 pm

    iFilm is another contender worth checking out. They were recently acquired by MTV, which should give them access to a ton of popular content to mix in with user-created stuff.

  7. Michael Arrington

    November 6th, 2005 at 11:36 pm

    Al - because I’m an idiot. Of course they should have been included. I’ve also received an email on another one - gabbr.com.

  8. Roland Tanglao

    November 7th, 2005 at 12:49 am

    don’t forget Now Public (nowpublic.com) which doesn’t limit space AFAIK
    more:
    http://www.rolandtanglao.com/a.....experience

    And ClipShack’s limit according to their site is only 50MB:
    http://www.rolandtanglao.com/a.....ble_for_me

  9. Rodrigo A. SEPULVEDA SCHULZ

    November 7th, 2005 at 2:04 am

    Michael: a few more that are very similar in concept:

    http://www.myveo.com
    http://www.vobbo.com
    http://www.varsityTV.com
    http://www.123vlogging.com
    http://www.zippyvideos.com
    http://www.phanfare.com

  10. Vinu

    November 7th, 2005 at 2:20 am

    I heard at tagcamp .. that flickr is soon releasing ‘video too!!’ now thats gonna rock the world! woosh …

  11. Marco

    November 7th, 2005 at 2:30 am

    If you want to build your own Flickr-video site you can try Lulop2, that’s open source (on Sourceforge), and has started to do Flash video before Google.

  12. David Pooxi

    November 7th, 2005 at 2:48 am

    Although Pooxi.com is in French, you could add it on the list ;).
    We do not convert to flash yet. We do give money back to the authors (revenue sharing through advertising).

    David Pooxi
    Founder & CEO

  13. Pete Freitag

    November 7th, 2005 at 8:20 am

    You might want to keep an eye on Jeremy Allaire’s BrightCove they working to democratize video as well.

  14. Benjamin BEJBAUM

    November 7th, 2005 at 8:53 am

    Hi guys,
    Thanks for your article.
    I’d Like to make some updates about Dailymotion Features :

    # Dailymotion service is free.

    # upload max is 150 Mo per video. the max storage has not been specified yet , but it will go around 1Go of compressed files.

    # It converts any format to mov/flv/3gp. a dedicated javascript try to guess what is the best format your browser can read.

    # PRIVACY IS availaible !

    Thanks again.

  15. Jon Gales

    November 7th, 2005 at 9:54 am

    I found Revver a week or two ago and used it quite a bit (didn’t upload, but viewed). All of the videos are in QuickTime and use what appears to be SMIL to add what they call the Revver bar. So there must be some conversion going on. On the upload page it mentions you have to download the “Revver uploader” and that they accept all popular formats.

  16. Steven

    November 7th, 2005 at 2:51 pm

    http://www.vobbo.com/ - Vobbo seems to be pretty young, but very flexible.

  17. Klim

    November 7th, 2005 at 2:58 pm

    And I thought I had seen them all.
    You have missed some however. One of the best out there is Sharkle.com!
    I’ve done a roundup of video sites on my blog that can viewed here:
    The Creme de Video Sharing Websites

  18. Michael Wolf

    November 7th, 2005 at 3:08 pm

    Hey, MPEGnation.com beat all of these - but it charges a little. Still, you get Windows, Real, QuickTime in sizes up to 1,500k - and complete conversion from upload or submitted physical media. Much higher quality even though you have to pay a little.

  19. Greg Kostello

    November 7th, 2005 at 4:22 pm

    You missed another one, http://vMix.com, started by a bunch of ex-Mp3.com artists, engineers and executives.

  20. WebLeOn

    November 7th, 2005 at 4:32 pm

    http://www.Seehaha.com is also a good service for video hosting and sharing…..

  21. Johnathan

    November 7th, 2005 at 5:23 pm

    I use MetaCafe. Let me tell you - the content there is pure fun.

  22. Ella

    November 7th, 2005 at 5:54 pm

    Hey, also check out http://www.blinkx.tv - they’ve got a service called my.blinkx.tv - you can upload and store your video content for free - though it’s not private. They’ll convert your stuff to Flash, and automatically create an audio transcript to index the file and make it searchable. They also have one of the best search tools for video - you can save your old searches and make your own personalized video channel.

  23. Eric Rice

    November 7th, 2005 at 6:52 pm

    Since our videoblog tool is a year old and we’re taking it out of beta this month, I can answer the questions officially for Audioblog.com:

    Price $4.95 (video is free beta)
    Converts: Flash, (soon to iPod quicktime)
    Download files: yes
    Storage: no current limits
    Privacy: I’m not sure what you classfiy privacy as to be honest
    Sharing: post to blog, post to rss
    tags: n/a
    creation tools: yes + upload (video moblogging soon)

    :-)

  24. Eric Rice

    November 7th, 2005 at 6:53 pm

    Oops, I think I misread ‘converts formats’ … we convert almost every format including 3GP… what I posted was that we publish to flash, and next gen is convert everything to QT as an iPod option to accompany our iTuness extensions compatibility.

    Cheers.

  25. Heather Rasley

    November 7th, 2005 at 8:52 pm

    Check out MedicineFilms.com! It’s an online community that revolves around amateur to not-so-amateur videos created in response to assignments. There are tags and lots of other fun and interesting ways to find other users’ videos. It’s free for a regular membership, which allows unlimited uploads of 5MB or less, and $5/month for premium membership, which permits uploads up to 50MB, ad-free browsing and a service called Medicine Dropper that posts your videos to your blog or website. It was started a couple years ago by a handful of twenty-somethings with big dreams and already it has attracted more than 2,000 members.

  26. JOlmsted

    November 7th, 2005 at 10:07 pm

    I’m really surprised that

    http://www.Vidilife.com

    has not been added to the flickr of video list yet.

    Check out the videos from a Russian student…

  27. rands

    November 7th, 2005 at 10:26 pm

    What about centrally produced video sites on the Internet? Is internet video more likely to succeed as personal phenomenon or a media co. phenomenon?

    interesting link: http://www.ReelBlogs.com

  28. Duc Chau

    November 7th, 2005 at 10:54 pm

    How about flukiest.com

    We’re a young company that just launched and we convert videos to flash. We also allow folks to send in videos from their mobile phones.

  29. Dmitry Shapiro

    November 7th, 2005 at 11:13 pm

    While Veoh is not Flickr of video, I suggest that you take close look at it. We are to Television (Full-Screen, TV-Quality) video, what these sites are to Web Video. Veoh allows people to publish long form video such as full TV-Style shows, including episodic shows, and allows viewers to subscribe to ongoing channels. There are over 10,000 shows that are available in the last 6 weeks of beta.

    http://www.veoh.com

  30. johnson

    November 8th, 2005 at 11:47 am

    why include group if the service isn’t even available yet?

  31. Klim

    November 8th, 2005 at 12:32 pm

    Some of the reviewed sites don’t fit the title. They can hardly be Flickr like if they don’t offer Tags for a start. Grouper shouldn’t be there as its service is unknown.
    OurMedia.org does have tags tho. However it’s hardly Flickr like because I can rarely access it, through any browser. Or is that just me?
    As someone mentioned, Vidilife.com should have been there.
    And I’ll add Sharkle again as I didn’t link it last time. It is like the best out there.

  32. Klim

    November 8th, 2005 at 12:38 pm

    oops… bloody hypertext markup language… it should be
    Sharkle and Vidilife

  33. Curious George

    November 8th, 2005 at 6:35 pm

    I’m also wondering why you did not include Google Video. They do a good job and do not show obnoxious ads or banners or try to get you click other places on their site.

  34. jjj

    November 9th, 2005 at 1:35 am

    what about multiply.com??

  35. bitboy

    November 9th, 2005 at 1:37 am

    Sony’s ImageStation.com lets you upload and store 15 minutes of video clips in addition to photos.

    http://imagestation.com

  36. devendra

    November 9th, 2005 at 4:26 am

    Pixparty.com is another site to throw in the mix. Around since early 2004 the site has over tens of thousands of videos posted by members across the world.

  37. Iri

    November 9th, 2005 at 8:56 am

    I would also suggest you check out http://www.metacafe.com
    it’s a great site for watching fun